On Sunday, April 23, I attended the
reunion of Public School #59 at Beth Tfiloh, catered by Milk & Honey. It’s
unusual to hold a reunion for a public elementary school and even more unusual
to make it kosher! Public school is free and in the ’50s, it was the choice of
most Jewish families in the Lower Park Heights neighborhood. But when I became frum, I knew that the best choice for my
children was Jewish day schools, regardless of the cost.
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The cost is
indeed great and a major burden on parents. About 25 years ago, state governments
began passing legislation to give children educational options, including
private school. At first, it was through vouchers. The next phase was allowing
parents and other citizens to donate state tax dollars to a fund that would
distribute the money for scholarships. In participating states, this is still
an option. Lately, due to the work of Agudath Israel and their coalitions, more
states are recognizing that private education is a viable choice.
“In Maryland, our scholarship program, BOOST, survived this
session, b”H, despite being under an
unprecedented threat to its continuity,” said Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, Executive
Director of Agudath Israel of Maryland. Since 2016, BOOST (Broadening Options
and Opportunities for Students Today) has granted 20,000 scholarships totaling
$55 million to private school students in Maryland, with approximately 27%
going to Jewish day school families.
A few days after Governor Wes Moore (D) took office, he
proposed to reduce BOOST funds to $8 million and close it off to new family
applicants in hopes of eventually eliminating the program completely. Nonpublic
school advocates and BOOST supporters began an outreach campaign to state
lawmakers to reject the cuts and program limits. Maryland CAPE (the state’s
private school coalition) held its student advocacy day, bringing together
hundreds of students from a variety of nonpublic schools, including
representatives from Bnos Yisroel, Bais Yaakov, and Yeshiva of Greater
Washington, who rallied together in support of BOOST in front of the State
House in Annapolis.
Although the House of Delegates supported Governor Moore’s
budget cuts, the Senate voted to restore the full $10 million and accept new
applicants. President of the Senate Bill Ferguson said, “With the 8.5 billion
we spend on public education, $10 million on the BOOST program is not a lot of
money, and we should be trying to find as many options for children as we can.”
With the session close to ending and the House not budging
on its position, more action was needed. Advocates and BOOST parents were
joined by community and faith leaders of all stripes, all of whom reached out
to legislative leaders pushing for an outcome favorable to the program’s
continuity. In the end, a compromise was reached to continue the BOOST program
without limiting new applicants, netting a big win for Maryland students. The
final budget for the 2023-2024 BOOST program provides $9 million in scholarships,
a cut of $1 million, but with an extra $2.5 million allocated for school
security and nurses at BOOST schools. According to Rabbi Sadwin, BOOST
applications will be available starting in early May. See AgudahMD.org for more
details about this program as well as others.
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* *
Outside of
Maryland, the most recent school choice news happened in Florida on March 27,
when Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law, HB (House Bill) 1, to grant each
private school student close to $8,000 in an education savings account, regardless
of family income. This is known as a universal scholarship. In a phone
interview, Rabbi Moshe Matz, Executive Director of Florida’s Agudath Israel
office, said that the landmark legislation was “a long time coming.”
Rabbi Matz, a talmid of Ner Israel in Baltimore,
shared that “Rabbi Herman Neuberger, zt”l,
infused the talmidim with a sense of achrayus (responsibility) for the tzibur (community) and to get involved with
askanus (advocacy), if possible.” In 2004, Rabbi Matz
started working in his position with Agudath Israel, and school choice became
one of his priorities.
About 20 years
ago, Florida, which doesn’t collect individual state income taxes, allowed
corporations with tax liability to donate to scholarship organizations which
provide scholarships for students wishing to attend private schools. “It was
very limited,” explained Rabbi Matz, “only covering kindergarten and first
grade.” It also required students to attend public school before enrolling in
private school. With robust work by Agudath Israel, “slowly but surely” some of
the barriers were removed, and the state increased the scholarships to include
students up to the fifth grade.
During these
years, Rabbi Matz attended rallies promoting school choice. At one rally, a
Black pastor was on one side of him, another pastor on the other. Nearby, stood
members of the Hispanic community and supporters from other private schools.
“It was thrilling to see,” said Rabbi Matz. “Progress was happening.”
This newest
school choice bill in Florida was introduced in the Senate by Corey Simon (R) and
strongly supported by the Speaker of the House, Paul Renner, whose term was
expiring and who wanted to see the law for school choice pass while he was
still in office.
The Orthodox
Union’s Teach Coalition,
which came to Florida about 10 years ago, and Step Up for Students promoted the new school choice law. It
gained a lot of enthusiasm in Florida’s majority Republican Senate and House of
Delegates.
Each student
can use the $8,000 scholarship for anything associated with education,
including transportation, computers, school supplies, etc. “Most families in
our community will probably use it towards tuition,” said Rabbi Matz. In
addition, more funding was made available to educate children with special
needs. Rabbi Matz said, “The legislation will have a ripple effect across the
country – no doubt about it.”
*
* *
Rabbi A.D. Motzen, National Director of
Government Affairs for Agudath Israel of America, said in a telephone interview
that there’s competition among the states to work on school choice. Unlike in Florida
and a few other states with universal scholarships, grants are based on need.
Traveling from
one state to the next, Rabbi Motzen knows what’s happening all over the country:
“Indiana is expanding its school choice policy and is now nearly universal,
where families earning $220,000 a year for a family of four are eligible for
the scholarship programs. They eliminated extra requirements and added tax
credit scholarships for pre-school students.”
Ohio’s budget will
not be finalized until June 30, but its House passed the budget, which includes
a school choice expansion that’s now in the state Senate. The state already has
a tax credit program, vouchers, and an extra $1,000 to parents for educational
needs, including camp! “What this new legislation does in Ohio significantly
expands the income eligibility, Rabbi Motzen explained, “and we’re hopeful that
the Senate will increase that even further.”
Illinois, a
Democratic state, is unique because its $100 million program is supported by
Democratic leaders. But it’s reaching something called “sunset provisions,”
which means that it will end unless the program is extended. Agudath Israel’s
Illinois office and their coalition have been busy in Springfield trying to
keep the program alive.
Most important,
Rabbi Motzen said that Agudath Israel works in coalitions on these issues –
never alone. Even with opposition from teacher unions, “we never give up on the
prize.” He stated that the fastest way for many states to achieve school choice
is if the federal government would support it with the $10 billion federal
legislation (discussed in the WWW
earlier this year), which is waiting in the wings to be presented to Congress.
